A survey released last week suggested one in four adult motorists in Wisconsin drove drunk in the last year. That was the highest rate in the nation and compares to one in seven adult motorists nationally. We asked readers to suggest ways to reduce Wisconsin 's high rate of drunken driving. Here are the responses:

Maybe it's time to try drinking licenses

Drunken driving does not appear to be a problem with driving as much as a problem with drinking, so it makes no sense to take away someone 's driving license. We should be taking away their "drinking license. "

When we reach legal drinking age, require a "drinking license " to be presented to enter a drinking establishment or to buy alcohol. If a license-holder commits a crime of any sort under the influence of alcohol, they would lose their drinking license for a period of time. The more serious the crime, the longer they lose it. Extremely serious or repeat offenders would lose theirs permanently.

I suspect alcoholics would protect their "drinking license " at all costs and would not be caught anywhere near a car. Problem solved?

-- Paul D. Hirschey, Madison

State is not serious about driving drunk

Shocking as it sounds, many people who drink and drive say "why not? " Wisconsin doesn 't enforce anything seriously anyway. News stories of convictions usually don 't get printed until the sixth or seventh offense, when they finally go to jail.

A few years ago, a lady hit my daughter 's parked car and tried to leave but was stopped by my daughter. It was her fourth arrest, plus she was driving after revocation and had a suspended license.

The state prosecutor gave her a plea bargain, and she got Huber work release privileges. She still hasn 't paid all the fines and damages, and she was picked up again in a different county.

Until courts quit cutting deals, we will continue to be at the top for drinking and driving. I am sure they will argue about jail crowding. Maybe they will have to send them somewhere else. We need to enforce the law!

We need a three-strike rule (even though we shouldn 't give them three opportunities to kill someone):

First, lose your license for one year with Huber rights for six months.

Second, lose your license for three years with no occupational license and jail time (no Huber).

Third, lose your license for five years, one year in jail (no Huber), and the car you were driving gets sold at auction to pay for road repairs.

Serious? Yes, but until we crack down and quit offering pleas, we will be the place to drink and drive.

-- Cindy Ulsrud, Sun Prairie

Require addiction credit for license

Attitude change is the solution not only to drinking and driving, but to all criminal acts. Large penalties do not deter.

While under the influence, alcohol or drugs rule. To think that alcohol is needed to have a good time is to think that loss of control is needed to have a good time. We need to realize that drinking alcohol removes our ability to rationalize and make good choices.

We all need an in-depth education on alcohol and drugs. Perhaps there should be an additional required credit in high school on alcohol, drugs and addiction prior to receiving a driver 's license.

We who already have a license could be required to obtain a temporary occupational license and earn that credit to receive our standard driver license.

In our society we see the results of alcoholism and drug use. Most of us do not fully understand the effects of alcohol on the participant. We need to stop putting our heads in the sand in the hope that this problem goes away. Tough action is needed for tough problems. National education is the way to attitude change.

-- Sylvester Acker, Oregon

Add mea culpa and public service

After the second conviction of drunken driving, individuals should have to appear on live TV that serves their living and working area -- at their own expense -- and admit their conviction.

They should also have to perform community service in their living area. The amount of community service should be calculated by dividing the amount of their monetary fine by the Wisconsin minimum wage.

-- Bill Rowe, Sun Prairie

All else has failed -- confiscate their cars

Wisconsin holds the shameful U.S. record for driving under the influence.

Sunday 's editorial suggestion to increase the penalties for drunken driving has already been tried and hasn 't worked.

The answer is to take away their cars.

Seizure is done for assets of drug dealers and is legal. You might say seizing property that is owned by the lending institution is improper. Baloney. Just impound the vehicles for a period of time and the banks and other lenders will consult the database for drunken driving convictions before lending.

Perhaps it is time for the citizenry to rise up and demand of our legislators this solution to our disgraceful record. The next fatal victim could be you or someone you love.

-- Robert C. Sartori, Sun Prairie

Change Wisconsin's culture of drinking

Earlier this year the Department of Public Instruction released a survey showing that about half of our children are drinking at age 14 or younger. Statistically, four out of 10 children who drink at or before age 14 will develop an alcohol dependency during their lifetimes. How many of our drinking children grow up to become drinking drivers?

With the shadow of alcohol dependence hanging over them, penalties and license revocation alone will not reduce drunken driving. Wisconsin is facing the consequence of our failure to address childhood drinking, while the next generation of drunken drivers is starting to drink in middle school.

Blaming our culture implies we are powerless to change the beliefs and values that are harming us. Nothing is further from the truth. We know how to reduce alcohol abuse, including drunken driving. We simply lack the political will power to change the way we sell and serve alcohol.

When that changes, our culture will change.

-- Julia Sherman, Middleton

Random traffic stops may be necessary

A drunken driver does not set out to have an accident or kill someone. And he or she feels (incorrectly) that they are still competent to drive.

So harsh penalties for drunken driving accidents are not going to stop them from getting behind the wheel. And even if their driver 's licenses are revoked, drunken drivers "know " they will not be caught and questioned.

The major problem in Wisconsin is that a drunken driving offender can continue driving with impunity. I can read in the papers every week that a drunken driver had caused an accident, and had multiple previous citations, and was driving with a revoked license. These are the drivers we need to get off the road before they cause accidents.

So what is needed to stop people with revoked licenses from driving? Random traffic stops without cause as a preventive measure.

Locking up a drunken driver after he or she has killed someone is ineffective. The drunken driver never considered such an outcome, and then it is too late anyhow.

Compare the cost to society of occasional traffic stops vs. the cost of locking up dozens for 10-20 years.

-- Michael von Schneidemesser, Madison

Jail time deserved, but offer treatment

There 's no question that drunken drivers are a danger to themselves and other people riding with them or on the same road. An honest and logical solution is needed to curb this out-of-control problem.

The Portage police chief recently said that the new drunken driving laws with longer terms for repeat offenders will at least keep them off the roads for a while. When did that kind of thinking become acceptable to the public officials who are supported to serve and protect? If we were talking about a pedophile, I don 't think he 'd have the same opinion.

Treatment is an essential part of the rehabilitating experience of jail or prison. There 's an intensive, six-month alcohol and drug abuse treatment program called the "earned release program. " A person convicted of drunken driving, or drunken driving resulting in injury, is considered eligible. If the crash results in severe bodily harm or death, the person responsible is not eligible.

The drunken driver who caused great injury or death, if sentenced to a year in the Dane County Jail, could be placed in the electronic monitoring program by the sheriff. On the other hand, if a Dane County judge sentences that person to prison for the same offense, the judge cannot order the earned release program.

Wisconsin doesn 't require any amount of jail time for a first offense of operating while intoxicated. It 's time the Legislature took a better look at these laws and used the resources we have.

-- Gerald L. Lynch, Jackson Correctional Institution

Headline unfair to humane society

The headline on Tuesday's article about the euthanasia rate for cats at the Dane County Humane Society did a disservice to the organization's caring employees and volunteers who give abandoned and abused animals a chance. The headline, "Shelter Kills 2 out of 5 Cats," will do nothing but end up killing more cats.

The DCHS survives on donations from the public, and your headline will result in fewer donations. And that will mean less money for the programs that work to reduce the number of animals that have to be euthanized.

The DCHS often takes in cats that no one else — including the "no-kill shelters"— will take.

It's easy to be a "no-kill shelter" if you refuse to take animals because they are sick or if you only take a certain number. So where do those animals end up? At the DCHS.

Please stop harping on the DCHS and start talking about the real problems:

• People who abandon or surrender their animals because they consider them throw-away entities.

• People who abuse animals.

• People who don't get their cat or dog spayed or neutered.

Let's start applauding the work the DCHS is trying to do and support them by adopting an animal or making a donation.

— Marty Rostermundt, Madison

Waiting patiently for pope to act

I thank State Journal columnist Bill Wineke for his excellent coverage of the scandals within the Catholic Church.

Their moral position was severely damaged by a cardinal and several bishops.

As a life-long Catholic, this has been extremely painful. Now I wait patiently for the pope to take the necessary steps to bring his flock back.

This issue cannot be ignored.

— Gene Wagner, Janesville

Community to blame

I've been a member of the Dane County Humane Society since 1993. I have volunteered in many areas and try to keep informed with policy changes.

I wasn't happy about the reduction of cat cages on the adoption floor, and it made me sad after a visit.

But in hindsight, it truly is better for the cats living there to have two cages to live in versus one.

Our community is to blame for the high euthanasia rates at the shelter for not spaying, neutering and microchipping their pets. There are few valid reasons to surrender a pet such as human health concerns and inability to care for the pets any longer. But moving and new babies as excuses don't cut it with me. People need to consider the shelter a final option, not a first one.

Please know the staff is there to love and care for the animals — not euthanize them, which is a sad day for all involved. Please support our shelter for the sake of the animals.

— Sue McKean, Middleton